Sarah Jean B. Swanson

Sarah Jean B. Swanson of Shawnee, KS, died quietly Wednesday, May 20, 2026 in Overland Park, KS, under hospice care. Jean was born in Washington, DC, on October 11, 1937, the daughter of Harold Stephen and Ruth Dolores Blackman. 

Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 27, at the Hickory Hills Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7100 Hadley, Overland Park, KS. Family and friends may call between 6-8 p.m. Tuesday evening at Amos Funeral Home, 10901 Johnson Drive in Shawnee, KS.

 Mrs. Swanson graduated in 1955 from Garden City High School on Long Island, NY. She continued her studies at the University of Rhode Island where she earned a bachelors degree in nutrition in 1959 and met her future husband, Harold W. “Swanee” Swanson, Jr. After graduation, she joined the Public Health Service and worked at the Public Health Service Hospital on Staten Island as a dietician. She married Swanee on September 10, 1960. She worked for a couple of years and then stayed home to raise the children. When her youngest was in school, she began her second career as a teacher’s assistant, first at Flint Elementary in Shawnee and then at East Antioch Elementary in Overland Park. She worked for 20 years and retired to focus on Swanee’s health care needs. She enjoyed traveling with Swanee visiting family and friends throughout the country and continued to travel after his death. She loved to read, complete jigsaw puzzles, visit the beach, work on family history, garden, cook, and collect pineapple-themed things. She was a very generous woman who shared her time eagerly, serving faithfully in many positions and capacities at church throughout her life.

 She is survived by two daughters, Karyn (Jerry) DeVault of Sedelia, CO and Susan (Bruce) McCrea of Ayden, NC; two sons, James (Jennifer) Swanson of Livermore, CA and Thomas (Jill) Swanson of the city; 11 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Mike Kigin of Arlington, VA, as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews and friends. 

The family requests no flowers and suggests memorial contributions to either Monarch Hospice, https://donorbox.org/monarch-hospice-palliative-care-donations-1 (7451 Switzer Rd, Ste 100, Shawnee Mission, KS 66203) or the SMNW Cross Country Foundation 7568 Eicher Drive, Shawnee, KS 66217.